A Chick Pea By Any Other Name

I have been a sucker for fresh shelling beans ever since I first worked with fresh Cranberry Beans in France back in 1992. I truly long for late summer when the first beans arrive. Invariably the first beans to show up at the market were picked too early, before the beans inside are fully developed. I completely understand the impetus on the part of exuberant farmers to pick those bright purple and tan Dragon Tongue beans when they are so visually appealing, but Chefs must show restraint in this regard. The pods need to be papery and not bright and fleshy. That is how you know the beans inside are ready.

It is not just fresh beans that I love. I am a bean fan in general, but I find that most folks tend to look down on beans. While beans are without a doubt good for you and delicious to eat, they are seen as peasant or subsistence food, not the stuff of great cuisine. It is challenging for a chef to find a place for beans on their menus of a because of these chauvinistic attitudes. Fresh beans overcome a couple of hurdles in this regard. Putting the word “fresh” in front of any bean adds some cache and may even catch some diners off guard, piquing their curiosity. Also, fresh shelling beans only have to be cooked a fraction of the time of dry beans. As a result you can cook them in ways that preserves their shape and integrity in ways that are not possible with dry beans. This means they can be featured more prominent part of dishes. A fresh summer Soupe au Pistou is an example of this, where fresh Cranberry Beans really pop out visually and are even more delicious and creamy in texture than a dry bean could hope to be.

I was thrilled to see that Georgie Smith of Willowood Farm here in Coupeville had fresh black Garbanzos – Garbanzo and Chick Pea are interchangeable names by the way – at last Saturday’s Coupeville Farmers’ Market. I have only had fresh Chick Peas a couple of times, and only once from a source other than our own garden at Meadowood, so it was great to see that Georgie had them. Again, these were a little early, and only a few of the beans inside the still green pods had turned dark, as the name of this particular cultivar implies they will. Still they were delicious and very fun to work with, and I have a feeling that this week’s batch will be farther along in maturation. If you get to the market before me next Saturday, you many be able to find out for yourself.

Georgie tells me that the leaves of these beans – she sells the beans as a bouquet with leaves and all – are used in some places to add a lemony flavor to drinks. I learned this only after I had shucked all my beans, so I will have to wait until next market to see what I can manage with the foliage. What I did do was make a Summer Chick Pea Stew with them, and I have to say it met with approval from both of my daughters. The girls also had a great time helping us shuck the peas.

Share this:

Like this:

Related

One Response

Quite interesting, well I just now wanted some songs but got your blog post. A different comment or feedback which I would like to give is that this theme is very boring so you must work on it but anything else I fine.

Blogroll

Welcome

This blog is an exploration of my region's food, season by season. I will focus on foraging, farming and how to cook what I find. I will also discuss food politics and the history of what we eat and why.

Foraging often reveals traditions that make this region unique. I will do my best to remind us of some of these vanishing traditions, because they reveal a lot about our cultural history.

Agriculture shapes the landscape we live in. Right now farming is undergoing a critical transition. More than ever we all need to understand the importance of diverse, regional food production, for what it means to our region, our bucolic surroundings, the safety and stability of our food system and our own personal health.

Exploring these food issues reveals a lot about our environmental and economic issues too. I will ask questions about the ways in which we are changing our food systems and how, as a result, our food is changing us.

This is a bountiful area, but also a changing area, and population growth, environmental degradation and vanishing food traditions threaten to change the way we feed ourselves forever.

Food is a lens through which to view where we are and how we got here. Because of this we can begin to ask the question about what to do next, so that we can live our lives more deliciously while leaving something behind that is worthy of the next generation.